This report was issued by the Regional Emergency Coordination Center of Tigray on February 07, 2023. It includes updates from the following clusters:

• Food
• Agriculture
• Emergency Shelter & NFI
• Logistic
• Nutrition
• Health
• WASH
• CCCM
• Education
• Protection

Note that this week’s update was considerably shorter than previous editions and provides less detail. Hopefully this is an aberration, rather than a trend. 

Major Highlights

• Mostly Old News:
  • Basic services partially restored, no commercial services.
  • Road access has improved, still facing line-of-control challenges.
  • Government workers, teachers, medical workers still not paid.
  • Majority of health facilities and schools have been destroyed.

• Since Nov 2, 148K MT of aid has arrived, only 51% distributed.

• Current estimates are around 2.5 displaced Tigrayans. 

Select Cluster Updates:

Food Cluster Update

• Current Population in Need (PiN) of food assistance is 6.5 million according to the Seasonal multisectoral Meher assessment. There is a gap of 1.3 million between the WFP/JEOP targets and the actual need. 

• A new WFP-led Emergency Food Security Assessment has been ongoing since late January. 

• Challenges:
  • Many PiN, including IDPs, require monthly food assistance. The rounds-based system is not working. 
  • Aid groups still face challenges reaching Adet, Egela, and Naeder in the Central zone; Erob and Gulo Mekeda in the Eastern zone; and Dima in the Northwestern zone; as well as the entire Western Zone.
  • Food assistance needs to be complimented with agriculture and livelihood support in order to improve food security. For more on Tigray’s agricultural needs see this report, which is also included in this analysis.
  • There is a cash shortage. With the banking system in Tigray still down, aid groups are forced to fly cash into Tigray in planes.
  • They need the local civil society of Tigray to be allowed to restart. Local governments have not been able to pay staff, commercial supplies are not available, and basic services have still not resumed in areas of Tigray. 

Logistics Cluster

• Logistics cluster does not appear to be providing weekly breakdown of humanitarian supplies coming into Tigray. 

• Lack of fuel hampering aid distribution. 

Nutrition Cluster

• Nearly 44,000 children under 5 screened for malnutrition: 5% had severe malnutrition, 19% had moderate malnutrition, 2,483 SAM children admitted for care, 114 in-patient. 

• 14,507 pregnant or lactating women screened: 40% acutely malnourished

• The welfare of health workers is cited as the greatest hurdle to the delivery of timely and quality health and nutrition services; secondary challenges are supply misuse and increasing cost of RUSF. 

WASH Cluster

• 72% of water supply schemes have been damaged (13,284 sites). Leaving 4.7 million out of access for safe drinking water.
  • 63% of water points in schools are damaged.
  • 76% of water points in health institutions are damaged.

• WASH response needs to scale up considerably, with supplies, funding, and a fully functional government system. 

Health Cluster

• Current outbreaks include Malaria, Diarrheal illnesses, zoonotic diseases, typhus, and HIV.

• “Shocking” number of women have endured gender-based-violence. 

• High mortality figures compared to pre-war: Maternal (5X higher), Neonatal (4X higher), infant/child (2X higher).

• Facilities are destroyed, health care workers are missing or unpaid, low level of supplies and drugs, overwhelming need. 

Agricultural Cluster

• Limited progress in acquiring supplies and inputs for agriculture.

• No progress in restoring irrigation schemes.

• Major challenges cited were: (1) limited resources; (2) inadequate agricultural inputs (seeds, pesticides, fertilizers); (3) limited animal disease control and prevention.

Duke Burbridge has summarized the report.

The Document